Frederic Henry Balfour (fl. 1871–1908) was a British expatriate editor, essayist, author, and sinologist, living in Shanghai during the Victorian era. He is most notable for his translation of the writings known today as the Tao Te Ching. Many of these translations appeared in his 1884 treatise: Taoist Texts: Ethical, Political and Speculative, also known simply as Taoist Texts. Although later discoveries of supplemental manuscripts have somewhat obscured Balfour’s early sinology, his work is still used as a primary source for many scholars of the Tao Te Ching.
Frederic Balfour followed the Wade-Giles method of transcription favored during the Victorian era. The first rough translations of ancient Chinese texts helped to shape future methods of transliteration.
Frederic H. Balfour also proved to be skeptical that Laozi, sometimes known as Lao Tzu or Lieh Tzu, was the author of the Taoist book Tao Te Ching; notably writing in Leaves from my Chinese Scrapbook that Laozi “is a philosopher who never lived.” Balfour believed that Laozi was an amalgam of wise ministers, or perhaps a literary device which Chuang Tzu used, as he expounded on his philosophy to students; very similar to the academic debate over the greek philosopher Socrates.
Frederic H. Balfour was a prolific religious scholar, and published several volumes discussing the implications of Theism on emerging societies. He also wrote several lengthy discourses on agnosticism. His letters about famine conditions in China, often sent to editors of newspapers abroad, were highly regarded, as little credible news regularly made it out of China during this period. He was also a frequent contributor to Harper’s Magazine, for which he wrote articles on travel in China. Balfour published several fiction novels; under his own name, as well as under the pseudonym Ross George Dering. For most of his time in China, Balfour worked as editor-in-chief for North China Daily News, The Shanghai Evening Courier, and The Celestial Empire newspapers.
Published Translations:
- Waifs & Strays from the Far East (1876)
- The Divine Classic of Nan-hua: Being the Works of Chuang Tsze, Taoist Philosopher (1881)
- Idiomatic Dialogues in the Peking Colloquial (1883)
- Taoist Texts: Ethical, Political and Speculative (1884)
- Leaves from my Chinese Scrapbook (1887)
Published Novels:
- Writing as Frederic H. Balfour
- Writing as Ross George Dering[6]
Published Essays:
- Preaching The Gospel (1872)
- Sermons Never Preached (1879)
- The Principle of Nature (1880)
- The Song Of Songs (Which Is Solomon?) (1893)
- Cherryfield Hall (1895)
- Unthinkables (1897)
- The Higher Agnosticism (1897)
- Religious Systems of the World (1901)
- The Relation of Spiritualism to Orthodoxy (1905)
- A Curious Physical Phenomenon (1906)
- A Patagonia Mage (1907)
